What is the meaning of Job 18:7?

His vigorous stride

- Picture the self-confident man striding ahead, full of energy and apparent success (Psalm 37:35-36; Job 20:4-7).

- Bildad’s image reminds us that outward strength can mask an inner rebellion against God.

- Just as Proverbs 16:18 warns, pride accompanies this forceful stride.

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is shortened

- God Himself places limits on the wicked; their momentum falters (Psalm 37:9-10; Isaiah 14:12-15).

- What seemed unstoppable slows, proving that human power is temporary and subject to divine control (Job 14:5).

- The shortening reveals judgment in real time, not merely in eternity.

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and his own schemes

- The offender’s plans are the very tools God uses against him (Psalm 7:15-16).

- Cunning strategies that once promoted gain now become snares (Proverbs 11:6; Hosea 10:13).

- Scripture consistently shows that evil devices are self-destructive.

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trip him up

- The proud fall over what they themselves designed (Psalm 9:15; Proverbs 5:22).

- Galatians 6:7 echoes the principle: “Whatever a man sows, he will reap.”

- God’s justice is poetic; the collapse fits the crime, exposing the futility of rebellion.

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summary

Job 18:7 paints a vivid, literal portrait of how God governs the end of the wicked: their confident advance is halted, their lifespan and influence are curtailed, and their own plots become the pit into which they fall. The verse reaffirms that divine justice is active, personal, and inescapable, urging every reader to place confidence not in human strength or schemes but in the Lord who faithfully upholds His righteous order.